Okay, so awhile back I trained horses and **** on the side, right, and I got hired on for a consult by this woman who trained her baby foal to jump up and put his front legs on her shoulders so they could dance/hug/look cute/whatever, it was a trick they did.

Yeah, the foal grew up into a half-ton quarter horse and that trick wasn't so cute anymore.

(Needless to say, the consult was for me to help her extinguish the trick, since the horse went around trying to maul people with its front hooves in a misguided attempt to hug them. It was hilariously horrible.)

Yeah, no problem. Last I heard he hadn't crushed anybody recently, anyway, so that's good enough for me.

Horses, like many domesticated companion animals, like to please their handlers and seek positive reinforcement, and when a handler responds to a particular behavior with what equates to "HOLY **** PLEASE STOP DOING THAT" instead of with praise/a treat, eventually the behavior fades.

Your story made me cringe. I can't believe someone actually thought that would be a good idea.. I have been around draft horses most of my life (specifically shires) and just lifting their legs is freakin heavy, I can't possibly imagine someone specifically training their horse to purposefully put their front legs and all the weight of their neck and chest on a human. I have almost no doubt that if a full size draft horse did that to you, you would die.

you should post some content about stories you have being a training consultant, I would greatly enjoy it

pic semi-related. I dont have any pictures of the shires on my computer, so these are the fjords! our little draft ponies

I know, their manes are my favorite part to do! I've done spikes down the black, or waves, but I usually just cut the white shorter than the black to give them a little stripe down their necks. They are a little scraggly looking in this picture though

Awesome! A few months back I was looking at people's different mane styles and came across this(pic related) and thought it was adorable.

Our horses just have normal one color manes.. Though back when we had a retired polo horse, she rubbed/had half her mane chewed off, so eventually we just shaved it all off polo-style and a few weeks later she had a wicked mohawk.

oh man, now I really gotta try cutting it like that! that looks awesome!

I know one person who keeps their horses mane trimmed at this really awkward length. Its too short for it to flop down, but too long to stand up, so it just looks like a saggy mow-hawk, its really strange looking. What type of horse do you have?

Well the horse we had was a Quarter horse, Thoroughbred, and Arab mix. Most fun, sweet mare I've ever had. If it weren't for her bowed tendon(Hence, why she was retired from polo) she would have been awesome for jumping as she used to jump the little log in her paddock when excited.

Right now we have three, two are ours and one is a sort of foster horse. Caspian, my horse (Picture of him jumping below here) is a no-breed one, we think he is some sort of Spanish breed mix though due to his conformation. He does Dressage up to first level, some second, and then jumps up to 3'6''. He's 14.3HH and I call him my pocket rocket. My mom's horse, Lucy, is a no breed (Suspected Quarter horse and arab) pinto that is just all levels of adorable and lovable. She's about 15HH and is an awesome little mare. (: Then the Thoroughbred is a friend of ours, his name is Pele and he is a 17HH bay mammoth. Though really he's like a big, giant, silly dog. Super sweet. They live in our yard, we have a few acres with a grazing area/jump arena in front and paddocks in the back. It's fun wondering if the rumbling noises outside is Florida storms, or horses goofing around. Caspian randomly gets silly when the weather changes and will start running in circles and doing aerial dressage.

Post a picture some time if you do cut it like that! I'd love to see! Below I put a picture of our three.

3'6" is a pretty good jump height, especially for a 14.3HH little guy! Pocket rocket sounds like the perfect nickname for him, plus I love his name! He sounds like quite the character (: I love it when horses have goofy personalities

One of our shires, Dudley, can be the biggest goofball. One day he found this 6 or 7 ft long stick in his paddock, and he would just pick it up in his mouth and prance around with it, it was the funniest thing to watch! I'll try to find some pictures of the shires, and I'll definitely try to get a picture when I give the fjords their next stylized haircut!

He's an awesome little dude. He's very enthusiastic, as well as kind of opinionated.. But that's partially because he's really, really, really smart so he sometimes asks questions. He also does some tricks, though nothing like giving hugs haha. (I'll put a pic of him doing his little trick thing. I need to get a picture of how proud of himself he gets after you praise him for doing the trick.)

Haha, that's awesome! There was a gaited grey horse we knew in Hawaii, where we used to live, that once took one of the big palm leaves in her mouth and then spooked at it. So she started backing up in circles and after a few panicked circles she then realized the thing making the scary noises was the thing in her mouth.

Caspian will hold things, too, if you give him a brush or bucket or riding whip or reins or pretty much anything, he will grab it and hold it for you. Before dropping it in the dirt, but it's still cute!

I had the exact same thought; when I first was contacted, I busted out laughing because I thought she was joking. Fortunately for me (and the poor horse's ridiculously stupid owner), the fella was still young, relatively "small" and very sensitive to correction. If he'd been a shire, the human population would be short at least one idiot, and that may not be such a bad thing in some cases.

I'd post more anecdotes, but they're not all very entertaining unless you're a horse person, which I guess most people around here aren't. Mostly just stupid people doing stupid things with critters big enough to kill em if they shift their weight the wrong way, which is always a good time.

Well you have my respect for putting up with all those idiots out there, I would not have much patience with people who own something like a horse which requires a lot of responsibility to treat properly, and yet are completely ignorant. Though I supposed those types of people paid your bills

Yeah, way too many people are ******* idiots. It's insane what some people do to their animals. I feel like half of my job is rectifying the stupid, poorly-informed, half-baked decisions of complete animal-related-retards.

Exactly! I see soooo many people, for instance, on youtube training their horses to rear because they think it's majestic and cute.. Meanwhile, here I am. No, it's not cute, it's not majestic, it's incredibly dangerous. When people know their **** and train their horses to do things like that (Like the spanish riding school and other professionals), it's fine. But backyard riders and competitors should not be teaching their horses to rear. Ever. OR 'hug' them. End of story.

I ride Dressage and Jumping and whatnot, and I see this sort of misinformed **** on nearly a daily basis. Don't even get me started on so called 'dressage riders' that cram their horse's face into their chest and call it a day.

On a personal note, I kind of phased into training dogs from horses in the last few years due to extensive physical injuries acquired on the job (ha, imagine that), and I still see the same sort of mentality: owners/handlers that are just WAY too big for their britches. While it's sort of amusing in dog handlers, although sad for the animals that are forced to play along, it's not really a big deal (until we get into the realm of bite cases)...but when you get some inexperienced horse owners thinking they can handle a huge, badly managed animal that can cripple them with one poorly executed mechanism, it's a serious problem.

...Honestly, I'd be fine with it if the poor horses would just kill off the stupid riders/handlers that do that ****, without the animals experiencing the backlash they don't really deserve. Does that make me a bad person?

Exactly. I had this one girl from across the street bring over her semi-mental warmblood cross the other day. It was all fine and dandy until she started trying to one-up me jumping, trying to get her horse to jump my 3'3'' jumps in a new yard at 8PM. Complete idiot! I even offered to put it down to a small cross rail to let her horse get her confidence, but noooooo, she's too ******* cool for that. TL;DR, she could not get her horse over any of the jumps, ended up yelling "STEWPID HURSE" and then her mom proceeded to almost drag her off the poor thing in response. This was all her trying to best me since we were jumping a zig-zag combination with the jumps at 3'3'' to 3'5''.

Actually you're not too bad for thinking that.. Though you're right, when **** happens due to bad riders normally the horses get all the ****. And then on the other side of things, we have the olympic riders making reasonable mistakes and being called **** for it.

Yeah, that's a fantastic way to either 1) get yourself seriously injured or 2) do some extensive damage to your animal, either physically or in terms of future progress. One of my major sore spots is when people push soft animals too far/too soon, especially in new environments, and then complain when they can't perform to standard. Good gravy; they aren't machines.

Good looking guy, BTW.

...And trust me, when it comes to suffering from peoples' mistakes, you have no idea; although I haven't had much backlash with my horses, most of the dogs I work with at home in my "free time" are rehab'ed pit bulls, which...will make you hate stupid people just so much.

I know! Most of the time when my dude's confidence fails, we regress to the simplest of things, short jumps, simple exercises, etc. And when he's perhaps having trouble setting himself up to jumps, I'll set up a free jumping ring and let him go through and get his confidence back. But this bitch just started getting frustrated and yelling at her horse, who was just like 'WHY DO YOU HATE ME'!

And thank you!

My mom does dog training, and I've heard a fair amount of horror stories from her as well. On an unrelated note where the hell have you been hiding, dude? This is the first time I've seen anyone that knows about horses lurking, haha!

Pshh, yeah. Well luckily her mom returned the favor and made her quit and walk home. Another funny thing she did was brag about her "1100 dollar new saddle" she was using. I googled it after just because she sounded full of ****, she was indeed. Most of her problem is she is naturally a complete showoff, and yet, she is terrified of horses and uses anger/frustration as an outlet for it. It's rather annoying to watch.

I've noticed, that's kinda why I lurk as well.. Most of the time I only comment on content with something horse related, too.

I had that problem with a friend I used to ride with. Our mutual trainer liked to buy thoroughbreds off the track and have us work em into hunter/jumpers for resale, and they were often a mess--my friend responded to them often with fear, in the form of increasingly aggressive handling and excessive use of her crop/spurs until they were either insane of dead-sided. (Not that I reacted very well either all the time; I got slammed into the arena wall and scared ******** a few times myself, and we were kids. I'm just saying.)

While she shouldn't have been put in that position to begin with, riders who are afraid of the level of animal they're working with should be able to recognize when they need to dismount and step back and reassess the situation. It's really sad that this sort of situation happens WAY too often, regardless of the experience level of the rider and horse involved. :|

Agreed. I use whips and very rarely, spurs, but NEVER for any sort of beating or forcing. I use the whip just to reinforce my leg, since my horse is still green and sometimes will not respond to it, and a light tap will get his attention. Nothing near any sort of beating or thrashing. As for spurs, they were dressage ones for a saddle I did not fit well in, the flap was too long so it pushed my calf and heel away from his side, and coupled with my long legs and a shortish horse(And long stirrups for what style I was riding), I just couldn't touch him. So I put on spurs, just so I could rotate my calf to give aids. Worked well, all you ever needed was the tiniest of squeezes. That's all you should ever need.

I agree. The only time I was ever really outfaced was when Caspian had a greenie moment at his first show, he did not like the wall on the indoor and refused to jump near it. We fixed the problem later, but it still got us DQ'ed. However, despite that, he was still freaking awesome there, he just did not appreciate the wall, and that was literally the only problem we ever had. It was also his second jump arena away from home. No punishment for him, it was just inexperience, and literally everything else I was like 'my horse is awesome.'

We're doing another show this next weekend. Going to school the day before, and if he's awesome, we're going to do the 2 foot class and just run him through it. If he's feeling good and jumping like a boss, I might go for it. Otherwise, we'll just go calm and collected as a learning experience, if that is what he needs.

Sorry about the length, all of my friends are busy with school lately.. And I do virtual school, so I've not gotten to chat with anyone for a good month. It kinda just explodes.

Yeah, half the time I worked with dead-sided old western work horses that developed rough habits, so I admit that whenever I went back to the sensitive types I had to remind myself not to be heavy-handed with the training tools; my favorite fella of mine is actually a repurposed quarter horse cutter that I used for jumping/eventing for a bit, but damn was he lazy if I didn't have a crop on me, regardless of the scenario. Didn't have to use it: just had to carry it.

And I definitely am not one to criticize the judicious use of training aids. My least favorite rider is just the one who over-uses the spurs for basic direction (not nearly as common in dressage/hunter/jumper as it is in other styles), or the crop/reins for needless correction. I've even had a ridiculous amount of people whip their horses at the mounting block when they won't stand still to be mounted, if you can believe it. *shudder* I kind of want to take the crop/reins from em and beat the rider myself and see how much they want to work afterwards.

Good luck on your show! It sounds like a fine start to me; if the first show goes flawlessly, it's bad luck anyways, as far as I figure. How old is your guy?

And I don't mind the length; I like to chatter on and hear about critters, obviously! ^^

Funny enough, my trainer from Romania taught us to use a cookie when mounting. I only did it once or twice, and now Caspian always stands, but then he's insanely and obsessively food motivated. All he had me do was give a cookie after you tighten the girth and get on, and they'll wait and stand still. Though this was around when Caspian grew out of the squirmy stage, so I really didn't need to use it. (:

Caspian is 11 now, though he was untouched before 9 and lightly ridden for the first year. He's been in real training for the past year and is super awesome. One of my best horses thus far.

In my humble opinion, it's always a better idea to use positive reinforcement (and lures/bribes, whenever necessary...or whenever you just want to, haha) rather than force to get em to do what you want. Builds a better relationship, and it seems to be a lot more effective in the long run anyway as long as you do it well. In both horses and dogs, I just hate to see the old yank-and-crank mentality applied to training; it may be a quick way to establish some behaviors and rectify some core problems, but it just creates more issues down the road.
...Also I hate to use force when I don't need I guess I'm a softy.

But, yeah, my favorite guy will do anything for food, too. Any kind of food. It may not even technically have to be edible as long as he can nibble on it a bit and then spit it out. It's actually a little embarrassing; he has no shame. But really, I love critters with food drive; makes me happy inside, and teaching things is SO MUCH EASIER.

I actually ride with a bag of cookies strapped to my saddle(Pic related, haha!). I don't give them all the time when riding, however, we normally do intervals with about 6-7 minutes of hard work, and then a cookie and a break to walk on a long rein, before repeating the process. Once upon a time greenie Caspian got spooked in the forest. My emergency brake? (Trail was only about one horse wide, and heavily forested, so there was no option to do any sort of circle without becoming george of the jungle. Watch out for that tree! And that tree!) Rather than going "Whooooa", which notably did not work for a little while, I then offered him a cookie. Now, Caspian cannot get cookies while running away, so Caspian then began to slow down and that was when I was able to get back into his head and give him a cookie. Or three. Ah, horses. While it was rather concerning at the time, it's kinda nice to know that my horse is ******* incredibly speedy.

Only occasionally does Caspian go into turd mode where I have to be a bit demanding to him. But that's only an occasional thing, and I just hold steady and let him fight with himself rather than fueling the fire. (Such as holding on leg pressure and keeping my hands steady if he leans, and when he lets off of my hand, I lighten up as well and give him a pat or a praise) Really and truly, horses, even the ponies, are several times your weight and there's no sense fighting. You either reward the behavior you want, or keep asking until they give you the right answer, and then reward it. Blah blah blah. Hell, I am going as a viking with Caspian to a costume contest at a dressage show next month, and initially they were rather concerned about my hat with horns, but I brought cookies with me every time I wore it so now rather than concerned nose-blowing and balking I get excited cookie-induced nickers and ear pricks. I hope the people at the dressage show don't kick me for my scary hat, I'm wondering if it will be an issue.. Haha!

If they complain that the hat is too scary for their poor fussy horses, tell em to socialize their critters more. As far as I'm concerned, if you bring your horse to a show, be prepared to have your animal exposed to everything on god's green earth, and don't complain if you didn't sufficiently prepare em for it.

...Then again, I am a terrible human being and I love to torture my animals by tossing scary things at them until they learn to love it. Such is life.

I already thought about yelling random Skyrim shouts and charging them, or lowering my head so the horns face them and acting like I'm going to charge. Of course, I would not actually do these things... But it's nonetheless hilarious to think about. Originally I was going to also do a Dressage freestyle to the Skyrim theme, but sadly I did not have an arena to practice the choreography in. So ehh.

"Your hat is making my horse scared.."
"I'm dovakiin, I do what I want."